October 11, 2019
Multimedia voice for violence prevention — Byron Hurt “in residence”
Hurt hosted lectures, meetings with students, and presented at All-School MeetingByron Hurt, award-winning filmmaker, writer, and gender violence prevention activist, held a mini-residency on campus this week. He hosted lectures and meetings with students, including proctors and prefects, cluster and school copresidents. He also engaged with seniors in the Empathy, Balance, and Inclusion program, the Brace Center for Gender Studies Student Board, Class of 2020 and 2021 MVP (Mentors in Violence Prevention) participants, and The Brotherhood. Hurt addressed the entire student body during All-School Meeting on Friday, October 11 with a message of healthy masculinities and ending gender-based violence.
For more than 20 years, Hurt has been using his voice and his writing to broaden and deepen how people think about gender violence, race, music and visual media, and food justice. A gender violence prevention educator, he was a Northeastern University football quarterback and a founding member of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program—the trailblazing, college-based rape and domestic violence prevention initiative. Hurt also served as an associate director of the first gender violence prevention program in the United States Marine Corps.
Hurt began his professional film career with I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America. His second feature length film, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on the Emmy award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. It has screened at over 150 film festivals worldwide, and has endured as a catalyst for discussion about hip-hop culture. In 2008, Hurt released two additional critically acclaimed films, If Five-0 Shoots and Barack & Curtis.
His latest film, Soul Food Junkies, won CNN’s Best Documentary award at the American Black Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Urbanworld Film Festival in New York. It is currently touring the country to rave reviews.
Hurt has been published in several anthologies, including Michael Eric Dyson's Know What I Mean?, Kevin Powell's The Black Male Handbook, April R. Silver's Be A Father to Your Child, and Richard Lapchick's Sport in Society.
Hurt’s Andover residency was made possible thanks to support from the Head of School’s Office, the Sykes Wellness Center, Brace Center for Gender Studies, Community and Multicultural Development, and the Dean of Students Office.
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